Outside of Geneva and inside Lyon.

It was about time we got on over to Nyon, Switzerland to see your friends Ji and Knut. We spent some quality time with the pair stuffing our faces in both food and beverage. We even made time to drive over to Lyon, France to see what the fuss was regarding Lyonnaise cuisine. Below is the evidence in pictures and words.

Getting ready for our first outing, the supermarket. Geneva is pricy, and our short stint at the grocery store, the bill was what the average Ethiopian makes a year. 

Conflicted graffiti in Nyon.

Nyon provides many nice views for a morning walk. 

May I suggest Château de Nyon for your next wedding.

View from the Château. 

Wreck your Saturday and add some kilos to your life with cheese fondue and a bottle of white wine. If it were in front of me now, I would do it all over again.  

Sure, if you can't afford dating. 

Nyon is teaming with visual artists. A fine example of one. 

Lake Geneva on a pleasant afternoon.

Future Olympian ice skater  in training. 

A drive up the hill from Nyon has a nice view of Mont Blanc. 

Good thing I got to witness recycling day. 

We change the N for the L and drove over to Lyon, France to do shopping and eating.  

The old town sounded like the perfect place to camp out. 

Up the hill was La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. 

 La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

Scenic Lyon. 

We partially cheated, we rode the funicular up to the Basilica, but walked back down. 

A Christmas market isn't complete without a ZZ Top cover band.  

What the French think Mexican food is. 

Apparently falafel is legal in Lyon.  

Lyon at sunset (4:30 pm)

Another view

Knut wanted to have a nightcap before heading back to the hotel. He not only found a bartender to play air guitar with, but the bartender used the expresso machine to simulate a fog machine at the beginning of each song. I was treated to a nice air concert of Metallica and Sepultura. 

Ana and I roamed around Lyon and wandered into a museum or two. 

We returned back to Nyon for the Miss Cheese competition. 

Kortrijk, Belgium

Why Kortrijk? The little town in west Flanders seemed a like a good point for riding bikes, jumping on over to Lille, France and visiting some of the smaller breweries in the region (coming soon). A common sight you'll see around town are golden spurs in reference to The Battle of Golden Spurs in 1302. Kortrijk was also a battleground during both world wars and nearly bombed out of existence by the allies in 1944 though a few medieval structures remain. Our accommodations were at someone's home turned bed and breakfast. As an added bonus, the carnival was in town. 

A Tour of Flanders racing team camping out in front of Kortrijk's train station.

Old apartments coming down.

Memorial near our house.

Your guess is as good as mine.

A different kind of trampoline at  Groeningebridge and Albertpark. There is even a skate bowl if you want to bring your board and do so some shredding.

Catching some air.

The strangest carnival attraction we didn't take a photo of was where you can climb into a giant bubble and bump into others while in a pool of water. 

The carnival artwork was pretty sweet, like this mural that has people breaking into the apartment and a woman's lover (or a John skipping on his bill) leaving via a fire escape. 

Parrots and boobs.

Frolicking in the water and the unhappy banana vendor.

Fun House

The city on the Leie.

Lille, France was a short 30-minute train ride and seeing the Depeche Mode poster was Ana's favorite part.

French artist Jean-François Fourtou's installation Tombée du Ciel (Fallen from the sky) might be the best sight in Lille

Lille center.

Paul's Boutique is Kortrijk's punk rock burger stop. Yes, that is a vegan burger with real bacon on it.

Gravenkapel (The Court's Chapel)

St. Elisabeth Beguinage

Jack'it Seriously Hot Potatoes. Just jack it! seriously. 

Chamonix and the Mont-Blancs (you new band's name)

We just couldn't keep ourselves out of France. This time Ji, Ana, and I made Knut take a sick day so we could go play hooky in the French Alps but more importantly find a barbecue grill with the accompanying meats.  

Out of Switzerland and into France. If only the border crossing between Tijuana and San Ysidro was this simple.

We encountered farm country. 

See, you could live here.

Mont-Blanc sighting and I'm not talking about the pens.

Chamonix might as well be a larger Vail or any other popular ski resort town. Sure you can buy excellent chocolates, have lunch at an outdoor cafe and indulge in local aged salami. The advantage Chamonix has over the competition is the plethora of year-around outdoor activities...trekking, biking, skiing, climbing, and sightseeing just to name a few.    

I freely admit that I'm a chicken when it comes to heights and enclosed spaces. Knut and Ji bought us all tickets to ride the cable car to Aiguille Du Midi (3842 meters/12,600 feet). The ride is in two segments, the first stopping Plan De L'Aiguille to grab a snack and switch cars.   

The view from Plan De L'Aiguille at 2317 meters (6.700 feet) looking up 1525 meters (5,000 feet) to the summit. I barely overcame the first ride, could our team go on further? 

Don't worry, the mountains are only a cardboard cut-out.

A glance of our surroundings

Chamonix looks small from up here.

Looking for lac Bleu.

Knut and Ji weighing the options of taking the next ride up to the top. Will they do it? 

Knut and I thought we should send Ji and Ana to the top on our behalf, that sounds better than saying we were trembling with fear. I suppose I could have made the journey with the girls had a loaded gun been pointed at my head, but since there wasn't....Ana captured this image of two climbers on the way up. 

My hero at the top gasping for air. 

The summit of Aiguille Du Midi. There was an added option of riding a gondola above glaciers between France and Italy after reaching the top. Just dart me with a tranquilizer gun.   

After a panoramic view of the world and a successful mission of locating ribs, duck, sausages, and a vacuum we headed back over to Nyon for grill fest 2011. Wait, we still didn't have a grill. No problem, we found one down the street from Knut and Ji's place. The end.